The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for manipulating arrays of paper sheets or the like, and more particularly to improvements in a method and apparatus for introducing arrays of sheets into receptacles, especially into boxes of the type having a lower receptacle or case.
It is known to accumulate wrapped reams of paper sheets into piles or stacks and to introduce the thus obtained piles into receptacles. It is also known to build receptacles around piles of reams of paper sheets. An apparatus (a so-called wraparound case packer) of such type is manufactured and sold by the assignee of the present application and is known as Model 86.
A drawback of presently known apparatus for the confinement of piles or stacks of paper sheets is that their operation is too slow if they are to turn out boxes or analogous receptacles of prescribed size and/or shape and/or quality. Furthermore, the versatility of heretofore known apparatus is insufficient, i.e., these apparatus cannot be converted for the making of widely different products including boxes which contain predetermined numbers of wrapped reams consisting of smaller or larger sheets and/or reams which are assembled into a single row or several rows. Furthermore, presently known apparatus are rather bulky and all of their parts are not readily accessible.